U.S. faces daunting economic, budgetary challenges: CBO chief

18:02, 11 February 2011

WASHINGTON. February 11. KAZINFORM Although the U.S. economy has struggled to recover from the recent recession, the nation still faces daunting economic and budgetary challenges, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said here on Thursday; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

During this round of recovery, the pace of growth in the nation 's output has been "anemic compared with that during most other recoveries" since World War II, and the unemployment rate has remained quite high, Elmendorf said in a testimony before the Committee on the Budget of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"For the federal government, the sharply lower revenues and elevated spending deriving from the financial turmoil and severe drop in economic activity, combined with the costs of various policies implemented in response to those conditions and an imbalance between revenues and spending that predated the recession, have caused budget deficits to surge in the past two years," said the chief of the nonpartisan CBO; Kazinform cites Xinhua.

See www.xinhuanet.com/rnglish2010 for full version

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